TODAY’S PATENT – AIR MAINTENANCE TIRE

The Air maintenance tire was invented by Cheng-Hsiung Lin. This was granted patent by USPTO on 29th August 2017 bearing patent no. US9744816B2.  This invention was assigned to Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

Tyre pressure drops over time because air leaks out of the tyres. Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems warn drivers but require them to take action. Air maintenance feature compensates. A control assembly on a wheel gets the stem of a tyre valve from an air-maintenance tyre through this hole.

A control assembly regulator controls how much air flows into and out of an air pumping tube that is attached to a tyre. The control assembly has a two-way air flow control system with multiple parallel air paths. Each air path is connected to a separate conduit that leads to an air pumping tube mounted in the sidewall of a tyre. The paths work in different ways to send ambient, non-pressurized air to the air pumping tube when the tyre rotates in a certain direction against the ground.